The Dionicio Morales Papers

Born in Yuma, Arizona in 1918, and raised in Moorpark, California, by farm worker parents, Dionicio Morales witnessed at a very young age the hardships associated with agricultural labor and the injustices confronting Mexican Americans in a society that was still largely segregated. The Morales family was a product of the exodus of people from Mexico during the Revolution of 1910. (1997) They emigrated to Arizona and later to Los Angeles, where in 1963, Dionicio Morales founded the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF) – an East Los Angeles based United Way organization, which became one of the largest Mexican American human service institutions in the United States. As President of the organization, he devoted his life to a major effort to secure equality of employment and economic opportunity for persons of Mexican descent. This organization has endured and prospered through four decades utilizing a dynamic partnership model with the private sector, the government, organized labor and the community.

Sadly, Mr. Morales passed away of natural causes on September 24 at the age of 89 at Beverly Hospital in Montebello, CA. He is survived by his wife – Maria, his daughters – Margarita and Magdalena, his sons – Dionicio Jr. and Tim, his grandchildren – Rosalina and Xanath Padilla, and his great-grandchildren – Altair, Ehecatl, and Cuauhtémoc. This is a great loss for the Latino and Mexican community who he served and fought so passionately for in the hopes that they too might be afforded the status and benefits of first class citizenship.

The Dionicio Morales Papers consist of approximately 50 linear feet of material. This is a unique collection which includes awards, newspaper clippings, correspondence, personal papers, manuscripts, unpublished speeches, videos, and organizational papers reflecting his work with the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation and the numerous other public entities he served. Since April 2008, the CSRC has been working with Dionicio Morales and his family on organizing and archiving his collection. Although Mr. Morales is no longer with us, we are all dedicated to preserving his legacy as a key Chicano leader by caring for his materials to the highest community and archival standards. As part of this process, the CSRC will be making a substantial portion of his photographs available to the public through on online archive hosted by the UCLA Digital Library. For updates on the progress of this project feel free to contact the CSRC Archivist and Acting Librarian – Lizette Guerra at lguerra@chicano.ucla.edu

Aso, please visit the Dionicio Morales Foundation at http://dioniciomorales.com/
or The Mexican American Opportunity Foundation at http://www.maof.org/ to learn more about their services to the community and to get involved.

Dionicio Morales, A Life in Two Cultures, Piñata Books, Arte Público Press, 1997.